In the midst of a battle that has pitted Northwestern University’s expansion against preservation of the historic (albeit quirky) Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago, Jeanne Gang (MArch ’93) has come up with an elegant solution. Her design for a tower atop the existing structure adds the research space the university needs, pays homage to a unique landmark and forges a “third way” beyond a seemingly

GSD students recently harvested the first honey from the beehive located on the roof of Gund Hall. The bees have been on the roof since spring 2011 thanks to Connie Migliazzo (MLA I ‘13) and Hallie Chen (MArch I ‘12) who started the hive and Melissa Alexander (MAUD ’13) and Ben Ruswick (MArch I ‘15) who help to maintain it. The honey will be raffled off on October 26 to benefit a local community garden.

Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) announced this week that it will name a distinguished visiting professorship in architecture in honor of John Portman, Founder and Chairman of John Portman & Associates, a leading design firm based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Felipe Correa’s (director of the Urban Design Degree Program) new publication, A Line in the Andes, examines the transformative role of the first underground metro line currently under construction in Quito, Ecuador. It sets the stage for well-informed design deliberations regarding the urban future Quito deserves.

The major sights of Boston, as well as tidbits of history and arcane lore are as close as your smartphone with a new app that just rolled out thanks to 4 GSD students. Ingrid Bengtson (MArch ’15), Sayli Korgaonkar (MArch ’14), Eduardo M. Llinas-Messeguer (MAUD ’13) and Josh Schecter (MArch ’15) helped CultureNOW create walking tours, photos and podcasts for the Museum Without Walls.

Eric Höweler (assistant professor of architecture) and his firm Höweler + Yoon Architecture took top prize in the Audi Urban Future Award 2012 for “Shareway 2030, a reimagining of the Boston to Washington metropolitan region.

Students in the Master of Urban Planning program got a chance to meet with the planning directors of the nation’s 30 largest cities at an evening reception on October 8. The event was part of the Big City Planning Directors Institute, which is offered every fall by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the American Planning Association along with the GSD.